The Thurston County Wetlands Project is a long-term monitoring program designed to provide a better understanding of wetlands and the species that rely on those habitats. Thurston County has over 3,000 wetlands www.geodata.org ranging from bogs, freshwater ponds, and marshes to swamps and tidal estuaries. This diversity makes Thurston County an ideal place to study wetland dynamics.

The WDFW Habitat Science Team is seeking volunteers to participate in this study. Details including opportunities for volunteer training sessions are provided below.

Launched in January 2002 by the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW), the Thurston County Wetlands Project represents a major research effort by the agency's Habitat Program Science Team and relies heavily on assistance from volunteers. Volunteers are trained to not only collect, record, and enter data, but also to help design quality controls and assist in data analysis.

The Thurston County Wetlands Project includes a wide variety of tasks, providing diverse opportunities for volunteer participation, from the simple to the complex.

While collecting data in the field, volunteers learn first-hand how wetlands work and play a critical role in research designed to advance scientific understanding of wetlands statewide.

The Thurston County Wetlands Project will ultimately focus on three animal groups: amphibians, fishes, and invertebrates. Presence of a particular species in a wetland will be examined in terms of the biological and physical properties of that wetland and the surrounding area. Understanding the relationship between specific species and the habitat they inhabit will provide a "window" into the complex processes that occur in wetlands.

In the first year of the Thurston County Wetlands Project, efforts focused on sampling amphibian egg masses and larval stages, recording data on animals (or their signs) thought to influence amphibians and fishes, and collecting data on selected elements of wetland structure (e.g., vegetation). These sampling activities are designed to generate basic data that will be used to develop fundamental questions (or hypotheses) about the way wetlands work and how wetland sampling should be done in the future. More emphasis on fish, invertebrate, hydrology, and water quality is likely to occur in the future.

The WDFW Habitat Science Team is seeking volunteers for two components of the project. The first component requires volunteers to sample sites randomly selected throughout Thurston County; the second component seeks volunteers to sample wetlands on their own property. Each study component will use the same sampling approach. That is, wetlands will be sampled three times during late winter-early spring (February-May) in 2003.

Volunteers are required to attend at least one two-hour training session to register for the program. Training is provided and scheduled upon request. Obtain information on training by calling or e-mailing the contacts below.

The WDFW Habitat Program Science Team provides instruction in the survey methods and identification of egg mass and target vertebrates; map and directions to the target sites;

Volunteers need to provide their own transportation, and need to have rubber boots, waders, or footgear that will allow them to wade in water up to 2 feet. Participants will be asked to register as volunteers with the WDFW and to fill out time sheets on a monthly basis. Individuals under 18 years of age must have adult supervision.